u 


l^r■\^  J.  R.  WAI^KBR 


*     MAR  29  1900      * 


2P9 


Divfsten .,... 

Section. .. 

No,_ 


/  < 


EDDYISM; 


OR, 


Christian   Science  Neither  Christian  Nor 
Scientific, 


BY 

/ 


/ 

V 

REV.  J.  R-  WALKER, 

Syuodical  Missionary  of  Pacific  Synod.  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  Church. 


NASHVII.LE,  TENN.: 
The  Cumberland  Press 
1899. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


In  my  dealing  with  Christian  Scientists  and 
those  favorably  impressed  by  their  tenets,  I 
have  recognized  the  need  of  just  such  a  book 
as  this.  While  recognizing  much  that  is  meritori- 
ous, all  I  have  seen  written  against  Christian 
Science  has  failed  to  give  a  comprehensive  view 
of  it  including  sufficient  quotations  from  its 
founder's  writings.  The  quotations  herein  are 
numerous  and  necessarily  fragmentary.  Those 
from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  "Science  and  Health," 
are  followed  by  the  page  number  in  parenthesis, 
and  are  taken  from  the  edition  of  1896.  There 
are  a  few  quotations  from  two  of  her  other 
books,  "  Pulpit  and  Pew  "  and  "  Unity  of  Good." 

May  this  book  be  blessed  of  God  in  breaking 
the  force  of  this  strangely  popular  and  unreason- 
able error.  J.  R.  Walker. 

Fresno,  Cal. 


CONTENTS. 

Introduction    7 

CHAPTER  I. 
Christian  Science  in  Relation  to  Matter 15 

CHAPTER  n. 
Christian  Science  Healing- ....  23 

CHAPTER  III. 
Tendencies 31 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Concessions 34 

CHAPTER  V. 

Christian  Science  As  a  Religious  System 37 

CHAPTER  VI. 

How  to  get  Rid  of  Sin 44 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The    Teachings    of    Christian    Science   on   Other 
Subjects 48 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
False  Hermeneutics 57 

CHAPTER  IX. 
A  Pertinent  Question 61 


INTRODUCTION. 


I  approach  the  treatment  of  this  subject  with 
much  trepidation. 

First,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  understand- 
ing it.     The  literature  of  Christian  Science  is 
mystical,   obscure,   and   contradictory.     I   have 
read  much  of  it,  and  have  talked   much  with 
those  who  teach  and  follow  it.     I  have  given 
special  attention  to  that  fountain  of  authority, 
''  Science  and  Health,"  by  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  G. 
Eddy.     This  book  is  certainly  honored  with  a 
place  alongside  the  Bible  by  most  well-informed 
Christian    Scientists.      In    reality,    it   is   given 
superior  authority,  for  even  the  plain  teachings 
of  the   Holy   Scriptures  are  made   to  bend  to 
the  fantastic  spiritualizations  of  "Science  and 
Health."     This  book  of  663  pages,  counting  the 
index,  I  have  perused  carefully  and  repeatedly. 
There  are  portions  of  it  baptized  with  the  spirit 
of  devoutness.     Much  of  it  is  hazy  and  utterly 
unintelligible.     Much  of  it  is  contradictory.     In 
one  place  the  author  appears  to  teach  one  thing ; 
in  another  the  opposite.     Much  of  it  is  bombastic 
puerility.      Mr.    Walcott,    who    has    written   a 
treatise  on  this  unique  volume,  truly  says  of  it : 
"  It  appears  to  be  beneath  criticism,  since  it  is 

(7) 


8  Kddyism. 

written  without  a  trace  of  literary  art,  and  is 
without  a  single  redeeming  grace  of  style  to 
relieve  the  tedium  of  disjointed,  inconsequential, 
dogmatic,  and  egotistical  assertion  and  repeti- 
tion. One  may  open  the  book  almost  at  ran- 
dom and  read  in  either  direction  without  mate- 
rially modifying  the  character  of  the  argument 
or  the  sequence  of  ideas."  Yet  the  book  sells 
by  the  thousands  at  a  high  price.  To  draw 
from  this  conglomerated  mass  the  genuine  gist, 
and  present  it  in  systematic  form,  is  a  task 
whose  difficulty  can  be  appreciated  only  by 
those  who  have  undertaken  it. 

Second,  I  fear  that  the  exposure  of  the  silly 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  system,  along  with  the 
deadly  error,  may  wound  the  feelings  of  some 
good  people  who  permit  themselves  to  be  called 
Christian  Scientists  without  knowing  its  dan- 
gerous tendency.  There  is  also  a  fear  that  many 
intelligent  people  who  have  never  investigated 
it  may  consider  my  description  an  overdrawn 
picture.  To  all  such  I  would  say.  Read  Mrs. 
Eddy's  books,  along  with  her  magazine  articles 
and  those  of  her  followers,  and  I  am  sure  you 
will  decide  that  I  have  done  no  injustice. 

Mrs.  Eddy  claims  to  be  the  originator  of  the 
system.  She  says  :  "In  the  year  1866  I  discov- 
ered the  science  of  metaphysical  healing  and 
named  it  Christian  Science"  (i).     "No  human 


iNTRObtJCTION.  9 

tongue  or  pen  taught  me  the  science  contained 
in  this  book"  (4).  But  the  friends  of  Mr.  P.  P. 
Quimb}^  a  clairvoyant  doctor,  cite  the  fact  that 
while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  sick  in  1862  she  was 
treated  by  him.  He  died  in  1866  and  his  friends 
persistentl}^  affirm  that  what  Mrs.  Eddy  claims 
to  have  discovered  in  1866  was  originated  by 
him.  As  is  usually  the  case  with  error  when 
industriously  disseminated,  it  has  made  rapid 
headway.  The  number  of  adherents  is  now 
estimated  all  the  way  from  200,000  to  700,000. 
They  have  300  church  buildings,  most  of  them 
beautiful  edifices.  The  building  of  the  mother 
church  in  Boston  cost  $240,000. 

This  rapid  growth  is  due  to  the  following  con- 
siderations : 

I.  The  astounding  claims  of  the  system  rela- 
tive to  bodily  healing.  Sick  people,  like  a 
drowning  man,  grasp  at  straws.  After  one  has 
suffered  with  bodily  ailments  for  years,  and  has 
consulted  many  physicians  and  paid  out  much 
money  without  avail,  it  is  not  a  great  wonder  if 
he  puts  his  case  in  the  hands  of  one  who  says, 
*'  I  can  heal  you  entirely  without  medicine  or 
compliance  with  any  sanitary  laws."  And  when 
he  recovers  he  is  easily  led  into  accepting  the 
whole  system,  donning  the  high-sounding  name, 
"  Christian  Scientist."  Nor  is  it  a  wonder  that 
each  case  of  healing  has  its  local  influence  in 


10  Eddyism. 

winning  the  adherence  of  some,  the  favorable 
consideration  of  others,  and  silencing  the  oppo- 
sition of  others. 

2.  Mysticism.  Christian  Science  draws  around 
it  the  robes  of  mystery.  It  has  infused  into  it 
the  occultism  of  Theosophy.  This  appeals 
strongly  to  many  minds ;  and  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  mystery  has  its  influence  on  all.  We 
are  curious  to  know  the  unknowable  or  that 
which  is  difficult  to  know.  The  obscure  lan- 
guage of  Mrs.  Eddy  appears  to  contain  a  mean- 
ing dark  and  deep.  It  may  be  dark,  but  it  is 
rarely  deep.  Not  all  muddy  water  is  deep.  A 
man  was  persuaded  by  some  boys  to  try  to  dive 
to  the  bottom  of  a  pond  in  which  they  had  been 
wading.  He  was  soon  in  mud  head  first  to  his 
shoulders.  A  noted  preacher  defines  meta- 
physics as  muddy  physics.  This  is  certainly  true 
of  Mrs.  Kddy's.  The  following  are  examples  of 
murkiness  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings:  "Mind 
is  the  grand  creator,  and  there  can  be  no  power, 
except  that  which  is  derived  therefrom.  If 
Mind  was  first  chronologically,  is  first  potential- 
ly, and  must  be  first  eternally,  then  give  to 
Mind  the  glory,  honor,  dominion,  and  power 
everlastingly  due  unto  its  holy  name.  Inferior 
and  unspiritual  methods  of  healing  may  try  to 
make  Mind  and  medicine  coalesce,  but  the  two 
will  not  mingle  harmoniously"  (37).     From  the 


Introduction*  ii 

obscurity  in  this  passage  at  least  one  thought 
gleams :  Mrs.  Eddy's  god  is  an  it. 

The  second  example  is  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
book,  "  Unity  of  Good,"  p.  14 :  "  He  (Jesus)  said, 
'  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  here,  and  is  included 
in  Mind.'  He  declared,  '  Ye  say  there  are  yet 
four  months,  and  theyi  cometh  the  harvest ;  but 
I  say,  Look  up,  not  down,  for  your  fields  are 
already  white  for  the  harvest ;  and  gather  the 
harvest  by  mental,  not  material,  processes. 
The  laborers  are  few  in  the  vineyard  of  Mind- 
sowing  and  reaping ;  but  let  them  apply  to  the 
waving  grain  the  curving  sickle  of  Mind's  eter- 
nal circle,  and  bind  it  with  bands  of  soul." 
Rather  ethereal  grain  harvesting,  and  that  from 
a  vineyard ! 

Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  Bible  student  is  certainly  the 
peer  of  the  ex-preacher  who  boasted  of  his 
Bible  knowledge  and  requested  a  friend  of  mine 
to  preach  a  sermon  on  "  David's  stirring  words 
uttered  when  hemmed  in  the  cave  by  the  Philis- 
tines :  '  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the 
time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought 
a  good  fight,'  "  etc. 

The  reader  will  please  pardon  one  more  in- 
stance from  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  "  Pulpit  and 
Press,"  p.  7  :  "  Is  not  a  man  metaphysically  and 
mathematically  number  one,  a  unit,  and  therefore 
whole  number,  governed  and  protected  by  his 


l2  Eddyism. 

divine  principle,  God?  You  have  simply  to  pre- 
serve a  scientific,  positive  sense  of  unity  with 
your  divine  source  and  daily  demonstrate  this." 

These  quotations  remind  me  of  a  Fourth  of  July 
address,  the  opening  sentence  of  which  was : 
**  This  is  a  world  of  equipoise  and  intelligence, 
and  the  brute  advocates  the  adversary."  De- 
scribing the  rapid  growth  of  the  West,  the 
speaker  seriously  assured  his  audience  that  "the 
wind  sighs  in  dithyrambic  requiems  through  the 
suple-jacks  of  the  -forest,  where  nature  is  sprous- 
ing  in  her  first  attitudes."  While  there  is  much 
in  the  grandiloquent  mysticism  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings  to  strike  with  awe  the  uneducated,  an 
intelligent  attempt  at  analyzation  will  usually 
end  in  disgust  or  laughter.* 

3.  It  accepts  the  Bible  and  copies  after  the 
Church.  This  appeals  to  Christians  and  those 
favorable  to  true  religion.  It  is  true,  its  vague 
and  shadowy  interpretations  of  the  holy  Book 
are  stich  as  to  work  an  entire  transformation  in 
its  import,  but  this  is  not  always  apparent  to  the 
uninitiated  and  novitiate. 


*The  following  is  a  passage  quoted  approvingly  on  one  of  the 
fly  leaves  of  "  Science  and  Health :  " 

"  I,  I,  I,  I  itself ,  I, 
The  inside  and  outside,  the  what  and  the  why, 
The  when  and  the  where,  the  low  and  the  high, 
All  I,  I,  I,  I  itself,  I." — Anonymous. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  this  is  anonymous,  but  it  is  a  sample  of 
much  that  follows  from  Mrs.  Eddy. 


Introduction.  13- 

4.  The  cry  for  the  new.  There  are  many  fol- 
lowers of  those  whom  Paul  found  in  Athens,  who 
"  spent  their  time  in  nothing  else,  but  either  to 
tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing."  And  while 
Christian  Science  as  a  philosophy  is  as  old  as  Bud- 
dhism, and  as  a  religion  as  ancient  as  Pantheism, 
it  comes  to  us  to-day  clothed  in  the  dress  of 
modern  methods  and  bedecked  with  its  ribbons 
of  present-day  terminology.  Thus  it  appeals 
powerfully  to  this  age,  so  passionately  fond  of  the 
novel  and  sensational. 

5.  Predisposition  to  error.  Ever  since  man 
fell  from  purity  into  sin  his  heart  has  readily 
reached  out  to  clasp  error  and  furnished  a  fruit- 
ful soil  for  its  growth.  Men  love  darkness  rather 
than  light,  because  darkness  is  in  them.  They 
love  error  rather  than  truth,  because  they  con- 
tain error.  They  love  wrong,  because  they  are 
wrong.  The  stubborn,  rugged  truth  of  God's 
word,  which  tells  man  that  he  is  a  sinner  on  his 
way  to  hell,  is  unpalatable  to  the  fallen  man. 
Therefore  he  turns  from  it  and  embraces  the  op- 
posite error.  "  For  that  they  hated  knowledge, 
and  did  not  choose  the  fear  of  the  Lord  :  they 
would  none  of  my  counsel ;  they  despised  all  my 
reproof:  therefore  shall  they  eat  of  the  fruit  of 
their  own  way,  and  be  filled  with  their  own  de- 
vices "  (Prov.  i.  29-31).  "  For  the  time  will  come 
when  they  will  not  endure  sound  doctrine ;  but 


14  Bddyism. 

after  their  own  lusts  shall  they  heap  to  them- 
selves teachers,  having  itching  ears ;  and  they 
shall  turn  away  their  ears  from  the  truth,  and 
shall  be  turned  unto  fables"  (2  Tim.  iv.  3,  4). 
The  human  mind  must  have  something  to  rest 
on,  either  facts  or  fables.  I  am  sure  that  almost 
all  infidels  have  at  some  time  in  life  willfully 
rebelled  against  the  truth,  and  have  therefore 
been  turned  unto  the  fables  of  infidelity.  And 
while  I  would  not  bring  this  sweeping  charge 
against  all  who  wear  the  name  of  Christian 
Scientists,  yet  it  is  doubtless  true  of  those  who 
understand  its  teachings  and  accept  their  logical 
drift. 

May  all  who  have  been  led  into  this  strangely 
fascinating  system  of  error  become  alarmed  and 
seek  to  "  recover  themselves  from  the  snare  of 
the  devil,  who  are  taken  captive  by  him  at  his 
will." 


CHAPTER  I. 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  IN  RELATION   TO 
MATTER. 

As  a  healing  art,  Christian  Science  is  based  on 
the  following  syllogism  : 

God  is  all, 
God  is  spirit ; 
Therefore  all  is  spirit. 

Hence  there  is  no  matter.  What  appears  to 
exist  outside  of  mind  is  an  illusion.  This  is 
Idealism  pure  and  simple.  But  it  is  easy  to  make 
assertions.  "  To  the  law  and  testimony  "  of  the 
system  :  "  God  is  all,  and  God  is  spirit ;  therefore 
there  is  nothing  but  spirit ;  and  consequently 
there  is  no  matter  "  ("  Unity  of  Good,"  p.  43). 

"  I.  God  is  all. 

"  2.  God  is  good.     Good  is  mind. 

"  3.  God,  spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter  " 

(7). 
"  These  verities  contradict  forever  the  belief 

that  matter  can  be  actual"  (4).  "Mind  is  all, 
and  matter  is  naught  "  (3).  "  Thus  matter  will 
be  finally  proven  to  be  nothing  but  a  mortal  illu- 
sion, wholly  inadequate  to  affect  man  through 
its  supposed  organic  action  or  existence"  (19), 

{15) 


i6  Eddyism. 

**  Mind  in  every  case  is  the  eternal  God,  Oood  " 

(413)- 

Even  man  has  no  existence  except  as  God  or 
his  idea.  "  Spiritual  man  is  the  idea  of  God,  an 
idea  which  cannot  be  lost  or  separated  from  its 
divine  Principle"  (199).  "The  Soul,  or  Mind, 
of  man  is  God,  the  divine  Principle  of  his 
Beings"  (198).  If  this  is  not  Idealistic  Panthe- 
ism, what  is  it? 

The  material  man  has  no  real  existence.  "Your 
mortal  body  is  only  a  mortal  belief  of  discord. 
What  you  call  matter  was  originally  primitive 
error  in  solution,  alias  mortal  mind"  (371).  And 
mortal  mind,  according  to  the  same  authority,  is 
"  nothing  claiming  to  be  something  "  (583).  All 
this  prepares  us  for  the  assertion  that  God  is  not 
the  creator  of  matter:  "  Hence  the  Father  Mind 
is  not  the  Father  of  matter"  (153).  This  is  at 
variance  with  God's  account  of  creation  in  Gen- 
esis, opening  with  the  sublime  sentence,  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." 

As  there  is  no  matter,  it  reasonably  follows 
there  is  no  disease  as  a  reality,  for  we  have  no 
body  to  be  diseased.  A  man  cannot  have  liver 
complaint,  for  he  has  no  liver.  He  cannot  have 
a  broken  arm,  for  he  has  no  arm.  He  cannot 
have  headache,  for  he  has  no  head  — and  we  are 
tempted  to  believe  this  practically  true  concern- 
ing the  devotees  of  Christian  Science.    Further, 


RKI.ATION  TO  Matter.  17 

there  is  no  disease,  because  God  is  all,  God  is 
good;  therefore  all  is  good,  and  there  can 
be  no  disease,  for  disease  is  evil.  Consequently, 
even  if  we  had  bodies,  we  could  not  be  sick. 

Then,  what  is  disease  that  has  brushed  the 
rosy  hue  of  health  from  cheeks,  bent  strong 
frames  and  sapped  their  energy,  and  made  the 
air  in  all  time  past  tremulous  with  wails  of  pain  ? 
Simply  an  illusion  of  mortal  mind.  All  sickness 
and  pain  are  imaginary.  In  fact,  everything  is 
imaginary,  except  Mind,  All,  God.  Mortal  mind 
itself  is  an  illusion.  Therefore  disease  is  an 
illusion  of  an  illusion.  Growing  old,  weak, 
weary  are  illusions.  Hunger  and  thirst  are  un- 
real. Death  itself  is  an  illusion.  Medicine  de- 
rives its  power  only  from  mortal  belief  and  poison 
works  its  deadly  effect  on  the  same  account. 

The  following  quotations  fiom  Mrs.  Eddy 
abundantly  justify  these  promiscuous  assertions  : 
"  Ought  we  not  then  to  approve  any  cure  affected 
by  making  the  disease  appear  to  be  what  it 
really  is— an  illusion.  Here  is  the  difficulty,  that 
generally  it  is  not  understood  how  one  disease  is 
just  as  much  a  delusion  as  another"  (294). 
*'  Human  mind  produces  what  is  termed  organic 
disease  as  certainly  as  it  produces  hysteria  "  (69). 
"A  sick  body  is  evolved  from  sick  thoughts. 
Kvil,  disease,  and  death  proceed  from  false  be- 
liefs" (156).  *' It  was  scientifically  established 
2 


1 8  Kddyism. 

that  leprosy  was  a  creation  of  mortal  mind,  and 
not  matter,  when  Moses  first  put  his  hand  into 
his  bosom,  and  drew  it  forth  white  as  snow  with 
the  dread  disease,  and  presently  restored  his  hand 
to  its  natural  condition,  by  the  same  simple  pro- 
cess "(217).  "  Matter  cannot  be  inflamed.  Inflam- 
mation is  an  excited  stage  of  mortal  mind  that 
is  not  normal.  Immortal  mind  is  the  only  cause; 
therefore  disease  is  not  a  cause  or  eff"ect.  And 
mind  in  every  sense  is  the  eternal  God,  Good. 
Sin,  disease,  and  death  have  no  foundations  in 
Truth  "  (413).  Destruction  of  the  auditory  nerve 
and  paralysis  of  the  optic  nerve  are  not  needed 
to  insure  deafness  and  blindness  ;  for  if  mortal 
mind  says,  '  I  am  deaf  and  blind,'  it  will  be  so 
without  any  injured  nerve"  (90).  "You  say  a 
boil  is  painful ;  but  that  is  impossible,  for  mat- 
ter without  mind  is  not  painful.  The  boil  sim- 
ply manifests  your  belief  in  pain,  through 
inflammation  and  swelling;  and  you  call  this 
belief  a  boil"  (46,  47).  "  If  a  child  be  exposed 
to  contagion  or  infection,  the  mother  is  fright- 
ened, and  says,  '  My  child  will  be  sick.'  The 
law  of  mortal  mind,  and  her  own  fears,  govern 
her  child,  more  than  her  child's  mind  governs 
itself,  and  produce  the  very  results  which  might 
have  been  prevented  through  the  opposite  under- 
standing "  (48,  49).  "  The  Scientist  knows  there 
can  be  no  hereditary  disease,  since  matter  can- 


RkivATion  to  Matter.  19 

not  transmit  good  or  evil  intelligence  to  man, 
and  Mind  produces  no  pain  in  matter"  (411). 
"You  would  not  say  that  a  wheel  is  fatigued; 
and  yet  the  body  is  just  as  material  as  the  wheel. 
If  it  were  not  for  what  the  human  mind  says  of 
the  body,  the  body  would  never  be  weary,  any 
more  than  the  inanimate  wheel"  (114).  "You 
say,  or  think,  because  you  have  partaken  of  salt 
fish,  that  you  must  be  thirsty,  and  you  are 
thirsty  accordingly;  while  the  opposite  belief 
would  produce  the  opposite  result"  (384). 
"  This  woman  learned  that  food  neither  strength- 
ens nor  weakens  the  body,  though  mortal  mind 
has  its  material  methods  of  doing  this  work, 
one  of  which  is  to  declare  that  proper  food  sup- 
plies nutriment  and  strength  to  the  human  sys- 
tem "  (118).  Apropos  of  this,  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist told  me  that  he  started  on  a  journey  by 
bicycle  early  one  morning  without  partaking  of 
any  breakfast.  About  ten  o'clock  a.m.  he  began 
to  feel  hungry;  but  then  he  thought,  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  hunger,  and  at  once  was  re- 
lieved. About  noon  he  ate  dinner  and  then 
pursued  his  journey,  reaching  his  destination  in 
the  evening,  but  taking  no  more  food  till  the 
next  morning;  yet  he  felt  no  inconvenience 
from  hunger.  I  asked  him  why  he  ever  ate 
again.  This  stunned  him  and  he  had  no  an- 
swer;   but  the  Christian  Science  teacher,  who 


20  ,         Kddyism. 

was  present,  was  equal  to  the  emergency  and 
said  they  hoped  they  would  erelong  reach  the 
point  where  they  could  live  without  eating,  and 
cited  the  case  of  Christ's  forty  days'  fast. 

Concerning  death  Mrs.  Eddy  says:  "The 
fact  that  Christ,  or  Truth,  overcame  and  still 
overcomes  death  proves  the  King  of  Terrors  to 
be  but  a  mortal  belief,  or  error,  which  Truth 
destroys  with  the  spiritual  evidences  of  Life; 
and  this  shows  that  what  appears  to  the  senses 
to  be  death  is  but  a  mortal  illusion  ;  for  to  men, 
and  the  spiritual  universe,  there  is  no  death 
process"  (185).  "Jesus  said  of  Lazarus:  'He 
is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth.'  He  restored  Lazarus 
by  the  understanding  that  he  had  never  died, 
not  by  an  admission  that  his  body  had  died  and 
then  lived  again"  (241).  Yet  the  record  says, 
"  Then  said  Jesus  unto  them  plainly,  Lazarus  is 
dead." 

Now  note  Mrs.  Eddy's  wisdom  concerning 
drugs:  "Mortal  mind  confers  the  only  power 
a  drug  can  ever  have  "  (51).  "  Belief  is  all  that 
ever  enables  a  drug  to  cure  mortal  ailments  " 
(67).  "  Opiates  do  not  relieve  the  pain  in  any 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  They  only  render 
mortal  mind  temporarily  less  fearful"  (413). 
When  told  that  a  drug  acts  when  the  patient 
is  unconscious,  and  even  when  he  has  no  confi- 
dence in  it,  her  answer  is  ready :     "  When  the 


Relation  to  Matter.  21 

sick  recover,  by  the  use  of  drugs,  it  is  the  law 
of  a  general  belief,  culminating  in  individual 
faith,  which  heals ;  and  according  to  the  faith 
will  the  effect  be.  Even  when  you  take  away 
the  individual  confidence  in  the  drug,  you  have 
not  yet  divorced  it  from  the  general  faith.  The 
chemist,  the  doctor,  and  the  nurse  equip  the 
medicine  with  their  faith,  and  the  majority  of 
beliefs  rule"  (48).  "If  a  dose  of  poison  is 
swallowed  through  mistake,  and  the  patient 
dies,  even  though  physician  and  patient  are 
expecting  favorable  results,  does  belief,  you 
ask,  cause  the  death  ?  Even  so,  and  as  directly 
as  if  the  poison  had  been  intentionally  taken. 
In  such  cases  a  few  persons  believe  the  portion 
swallowed  by  the  patient  to  be  harmless ;  but 
the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  though  they  know 
nothing  of  this  particular  case  and  this  special 
person,  believe  the  arsenic,  the  strychnine,  or 
whatever  the  drug  used,  to  be  poisonous,  for  it 
has  been  set  down  as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind. 
The  consequence  is  that  the  result  is  controlled 
by  the  majority  of  opinions  outside,  not  by  the 
infinitesimal  minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick 
chamber"  (70). 

The  question  comes.  How  did  drugs  and 
poisons  first  obtain  their  particular  properties? 
I  think  I  have  seen  no  answer  to  this  question, 
but  doubtless  Mrs.  Eddy  could  readily  present 


22  •  EdDYISM. 

one  after  the  idiotic  (Kddyotic)  nature  of  the 
above  reasoning. 

The  inquiry  is  pertinent,  What  is  "  mo;;al 
mind"  which  is  such  a  factor  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
system,  and  which  she  claims  is  responsible  for 
all  our  illusions?  It  is  not  matter,  for  that  has 
no  existence.  It  is  not  spirit,  for  the  object  of 
spirit  is  to  eliminate  mortal  mind ;  besides, 
spirit  is  good  and  good  only,  while  mortal  mind 
is  evil.  Then  what  is  mortal  mind  ?  Answer : 
Nothing ;  and  that  is  really  Mrs.  Eddy's  teach- 
ing. "  Mortal  mind  is  a  solecism  in  language, 
and  involves  an  improper  use  of  the  word  mi7id. 
As  mind  is  immortal,  the  phrase  mortal  ?mnd 
implies  something  untrue  and  therefore  unreal ; 
and  as  the  phrase  is  used  in  teaching  Christian 
Science  it  is  meant  to  designate  something 
which  has  no  resl  existence"  (8).  "Mortal 
mind.  Nothing,  claiming  to  be  something,  for 
Mind  is  immortal,"  etc.  (583). 

It  certainly  requires  more  than  the  fertile 
imagination  of  a  Kipling  to  endow  Nothing 
with  such  genii-like  power. 


CHAPTER  II. 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  HEALING. 

Disease  being  an  illusion,  it  logically  follows 
the  proper  method  of  healing  it  is  by  denying 
its  existence  and  eradicating  the  erroneous  idea 
from  the  mind.  Christian  Scientists  do  not  at- 
tempt to  heal  the  sick  by  prayer.  Let  no  one 
make  the  mistake  of  confounding  this  system 
with  faith-healing.  They  are  as  different  as  light 
and  darkness.  The  fact  is,  Christian  Scientists 
do  not  believe  in  prayer  in  any  proper  sense. 
How  can  they,  when  God  is  all  and  man  is  sim- 
ply his  idea,  or  a  part  of  him.  It  would  be 
praying  to  one's  self.  It  is  true  Mrs.  Eddy 
speaks  of  mental  prayer  in  which  the  desire  is 
brought  unexpressed  before  God,  but  even  in 
this  she  is  inconsistent  with  her  system.  And 
not  even  mental  prayer  is  used  in  healing  the 
sick.  To  ask  God  to  heal  disease  would  be  to 
admit  its  existence,  and  that  admission  is  exactly 
what  they  are  trying  to  eradicate  from  the  mind 
of  the  patient.  Once  the  belief  that  he  is  sick 
is  lifted  from  the  mind  of  the  patient,  he  is  well, 
for  sickness  is  only  a  belief.  These  assertions 
are  borne  out  by  the  following  quotations  :  "  If 
sin,  sickness,  and  death  were  understood  as  noth- 

(23) 


24  Eddyism. 

ingness,  they  would  disappear"  (476).  "Only 
through  radical  reliance  on  Truth  can  healing 
power  be  realized"  (60).  "  Disease  being  a  be- 
lief, a  latent  illusion  of  mortal  mind,  the  sensa- 
tion would  not  appear  if  this  error  was  met  and 
destroyed  by  Truth  "  (61).  And  truth,  accord- 
ing to  the  system,  is  to  believe  in  the  non- 
existence of  that  which  exists.  This  Truth — 
which  is  error — is  the  Christian  Science  God. 
Mrs.  Eddy  gives  in  detail  the  method  which 
stamps  it,  at  best,  as  simply  mind-healing : 
"Always  begin  your  treatment  by  allaying  the 
fear  of  the  patients.  Silently  reassure  the  pa- 
tient as  to  his  exemption  from  disease  and 
danger.  Watch  the  result  of  this  simple  rule  of 
Christian  Science,  and  you  will  find  that  it  alle- 
viates the  symptoms  of  every  disease.  If  you 
succeed  in  wholly  removing  the  fear,  your  patient 
is  healed.  .  .  .  To  prevent  disease,  or  to  cure 
it  mentally,  let  Spirit  destroy  this  dream  of 
sense.  If  you  wish  to  heal  by  argument,  find 
the  type  of  the  ailment,  get  its  name,  and  array 
your  mental  plea  against  the  physical.  Argue 
with  the  patient  (mentally,  not  audibly)  that  he 
has  no  disease,  and  conform  the  argument  to  the 
evidence.  Mentally  insist  that  health  is  the  ever- 
lasting fact,  and  sickness  the  temporal  falsity. 
Then  realize  the  presence  of  health,  and  the 
corporeal  senses  will  respond,  '  So  be  it.'     If  the 


Christian  Sciknck  Heai^ing.  25 

case  be  that  of  a  young  child  or  an  infant,  it 
needs  to  be  met  mainly  through  the  parents' 
thought,  silently  or  audibly,  on  the  basis  of 
Christian  Science  "  (410,411).  As  an  example* 
she  says  in  dealing  with  a  boil :  "  Now  adminis- 
ter mentally  to  your  patient  a  high  attenuation 
of  truth  on  this  subject,  and  it  will  soon  cure 
the  boil"  (47). 

The  testimony  of  the  senses  is  not  to  be 
taken  relative  to  disease  or  anything  else,  for, 
according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  they  are  five  liars. 
"  What  we  term  the  five  physical  senses  are 
simply  beliefs  of  mortal  mind,  which  affirm  that 
life,  substance,  and  intelligence  are  material,  in- 
stead of  spiritual.  These  beliefs,  and  their  prod- 
ucts,  constitute  error,  and  this  error  opposes  the 
Truth  of  Being"  (170).  "This  verdictof  the  so- 
called  five  senses  victimizes  mortals,  taught,  as 
they  are  by  physiology  and  pathology,  to  revere 
those  five  personal  falsities,  which  are  destroyed 
by  Truth,  through  spiritual  sense  and  under- 
standing" (190).  If  the  patient  says,  "I  feel 
pain,"  he  must  be  assured  that  that  is  a  lie  of  the 
liar  called  Feeling.  If  he  says,  "  I  see  that  my 
arm  has  swollen,"  he  must  be  taught  that  that  is 
a  lie  of  the  lying  sense,  Sight.  If  he  says,  "I 
hear  my  heart  beating,  and  it  is  irregular," 
he  must  learn  that  it  is  a  lie  of  the  liar.  Hear- 
ing. 


26  Eddyism. 

Now,  will  the  reader  think  for  a  momenj:  where 
we  would  be  without  the  knowledge  gained 
through  these  five  senses  ?  They  are  absolutely 
the  only  avenues  of  approach  between  us  and  all 
that  is  material.  All  science  that  pertains  to  the 
earth  or  its  contents,  the  air,  or  the  worlds  that 
roll  in  silent  grandeur  about  us,  as  well  as  all 
hope  of  progress  in  such  science,  is  annihilated 
if  we  accept  the  teaching  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 

To  us  who  believe  that  God  endowed  us  with 
five  senses,  it  is  amazing  to  be  asked  to  believe 
that  he  created  "five  personal  falsities." 

Although  Christian  Scientists  do  not  accept 
the  testimony  of  the  five  senses  to  sickness,  they 
do  accept  it  as  to  healing.  If  not,  how  do  they 
know  they  are  healed  at  all  ?  But  even  Mrs. 
Eddy  accepts  it,  for  we  have  just  read  that  "  the 
corporeal  senses  will  respond,  '  So  be  it.'  "  Now, 
if  their  testimony  as  to  disease  is  that  of  five 
liars,  may  it  not  be  that  their  "  So  be  it  "  as  to 
healing  is  worthless? 

Of  course,  this  system  discards  all  medicine. 
The  vast  portion  of  truth  that  is  found  in  7na- 
teria  fnedica,  the  result  of  thousands  of  years 
of  research,  is  worse  than  useless.  It  is  harm- 
ful, an  evil  illusion.  Physiology  is  a  snare. 
The  practice  of  medicine  is  to  be  depre- 
cated, and  "  Luke,  the  beloved  physician," 
would  not,  if  he  were  alive  to-day,  be  an  accept- 


Christian  Sciknck  Heai^ing.  27 

able  applicant  for  membership  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
church.  Sanitary  science  has  proved  a  boon  to 
humanity;  yet  it  is  set  aside  as  a  silly  system  of 
error,  and  hygiene  is  a  hoax.  The  war  against 
filth,  the  cleansing  of  putrescence,  guarding 
against  poisonous  atmosphere,  the  purification  of 
water,  are  useless  measures.  All  the  efforts  of 
the  Americans  to  cleanse  the  streets,  stores,  and 
homes  of  Santiago  of  the  pestilence  of  filth  that 
"  walketh  in  darkness  "  and  "  wasteth  at  noon- 
day" were  grievous  concessions  to  error  and 
should  never  have  been  made.  Surely  this 
IS  THE  GOSPEL  OF  FILTH.  But,  according  to 
Christian  Science,  there  is  no  filth. 

Certainly  it  is  a  burlesque  to  call  this  a  science. 
It  is  anti-science,  non-science,  nonsense. 

That  I  have  not  stated  the  case  too  strongly,  I 
make  the  following  quotations  :  "  Medicine  is  not 
a  science,  but  a  bundle  of  speculative  human 
theories"  (42).  "The  profession  of  medicine 
originated  in  idolatry,  with  pagan  priests,  who 
besought  the  gods  to  heal  the  sick,  and  desig- 
nated Apollo  as  the  God  of  Medicine.  He  was 
supposed  to  dictate  the  first  prescription,  accord- 
ing to  the  history  of  Four  Thousand  Years  of 
Medicine.  It  is  here  noticeable  that  Apollo 
was  also  regarded  as  the  sender  of  disease 
Hippocrates  turned  from  image -gods  to  vegeta- 
ble and  mineral  drugs  for  healing.     This  was 


28  Eddyism. 

deemed  progress,  but  really  it  only  produced 
another  form  of  mythology  and  pagan  worship. 
The  future  fate  and  history  of  material  medicine 
will  correspond  with  that  of  its  material  god, 
Apollo,  who  was  banished  from  heaven,  and  en- 
dured great  sufferings  on  earth  "  (51).  "Accord- 
ing to  my  understanding,  the  sick  are  never 
healed  by  drugs,  hygiene,  or  any  material  method. 
These  merely  evade  the  question.  They  are 
soothing  syrups  to  put  children  to  sleep,  satisfy 
mortal  belief,  and  lull  its  fears  "  (126).  "  If  half 
the  attention  given  to  hygiene  were  given  to  the 
study  of  Christian  Science,  and  its  elevation  of 
thought,  this  alone  would  usher  in  the  millen- 
nium. Bathing  and  rubbing,  to  alter  the  secre- 
tions, or  remove  unhealthy  exhalations  from  the 
cuticle,  receive  a  useful  rebuke  from  Christian 
healing.  We  must  beware  of  making  clean 
merely  the  outside  of  the  platter.  He  who  is 
ignorant  of  what  is  termed  hygienic  law  is  more 
receptive  of  spiritual  power,  and  faith  in  one 
God,  than  the  devotee  of  this  supposed  law,  who 
comes  to  teach  him.  Must  we  not  then  call  the 
so-called  law  of  matter  a  canon  '  more  honored 
in  the  breach  than  the  observance?' 
We  need  a  clean  body  and  a  clean  mind,  a  body 
rendered  pure  by  mind,  not  matter.  One  says, 
'  I  take  good  care  of  my  body.'  No  doubt  he 
attends  to  it  with  as  much  care  as  he  would  to 


Christian  Science  Hkai^ing.  29 

the  grooming  of  his  horse ;  and  possibly  the 
animal  sensation  of  scrubbing  has  more  mean- 
ing, to  such  a  man,  than  the  pure  and  exalting 
influence  of  the  divine  Mind ;  but  the  Christian 
Scientist  takes  the  best  care  of  his  body  when 
he  leaves  it  most  out  of  his  thought,  and,  like 
the  apostle  Paul,  is  *  willing  rather  to  be  absent 
from  the  body  and  present  with  the  Lord '  " 
(381,  382).  "  If  exposure  to  a  draught  of  air, 
while  in  a  state  of  perspiration,  is  followed  by 
chills,  dry  cough,  influenza,  inflammatory  rheu- 
matism, your  Mind-remedy  is  safe  and  sure.  If 
you  are  a  Christian  Scientist,  such  symptoms 
will  not  follow  from  the  exposure  ;  but  if  you 
believe  in  laws  of  matter,  and  their  fatal  eflfects 
when  transgressed,  you  are  not  fit  to  conduct 
your  own  case  or  to  destro}^  the  bad  effects  of 
belief.  When  the  fear  subsides,  and  the  convic- 
tion abides  that  you  have  broken  no  law,  neither 
rheumatism,  nor  consumption,  nor  any  other  dis- 
ease will  ever  result  from  exposure  to  the 
weather"  (383).  "We  must  abandon  pharma- 
ceutics, and  take  up  ontology,  '  the  science  of 
abstract  being.'  "  "  Because  the  muscles  of  the 
blacksmith's  arm  are  strongly  developed,  it  does 
not  follow  that  exercise  has  produced  this  result, 
or  that  a  less  used  arm  must  be  weak.  If  mat- 
ter were  the  cause  of  action,  and  muscles,  with- 
out the  co-operation  of  mortal  mind,  could  lift 


30  Eddyism. 

the  hammer  and  strike  the  nail,  it  might  be 
thought  true  that  hammering  would  enlarge  the 
muscles.  The  trip  hammer  is  not  increased  in 
size  by  exercise.  Why  not,  since  muscles  are 
as  material  as  wood?  Because  mortal  mind  is 
not  willing  that  result  on  the  hammer.  Muscles 
are  not  self-acting.  If  mortal  mind  moves  them 
not,  they  are  motionless.  Hence  the  fact  that 
mortal  mind  enlarges  and  strengthens  them 
through  its  mandate,  through  its  own  demand 
for  and  supply  of  power.  Not  because  of  mus- 
cular exercise,  but  by  reason  of  the  blacksmith's 
faith    in   muscle,  his   arm   becomes    stronger " 

(94.95)-* 

How  unlike  the  Christian  Science  mind-cures 
were  those  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  !  They 
recognized  disease  as  a  fearful  reality  and  healed 
it  by  the  power  of  God.  And  in  some  intances, 
at  least,  the  Bible  encourages  the  use  of  means, 
and  always  the  compliance  with  the  laws  of 
health. 


*  What  about  the  infant,  the  idiot,  the  brute  ' 


CHAPTER  III. 

TENDENCIES. 

The  attitude  of  Christian  Science  towards 
matter  and  disease  has  the  following  injurious 
effects  in  morals : 

I.  It  cultivates  inhumaneness.  It  stifles  sym- 
pathy for  and  refuses  it  to  the  physically  afBicted. 
How  can  it  be  otherwise  when  the  most  agoniz- 
ing protestations  of  pain  are  to  be  met  with  a 
complacent  denial?  The  child,  whose  nerves 
are  all  aquiver  with  suffering,  looks  up  into  the 
eyes  of  his  mother  pleading  for  sympathy,  and 
is  smilingly  assured  by  her  that  he  is  not  suffer- 
ing.    It  is  all  a  mistake. 

That  I  do  not  exaggerate  the  case  will  be 
seen  by  reading  Mrs.  Eddy's  words:  "That 
mother  is  not  a  Christian  Scientist,  and  her 
affections  need  better  guidance,  who  says  to  her 
child  :  '  You  look  sick,'  '  You  look  tired,'  *  You 
need  rest,'  or  'You  need  medicine.'  Such  a 
mother  runs  to  her  little  one,  who  has  hurt  her 
face  by  falling  on  the  carpet,  and  says,  moaning 
more  childishly  than  her  child,  '  Mamma  knows 
you  are  hurt.'  The  more  successful  way  of 
treatment  is  to  say  :  '  Oh,  nonsense !  You  're 
not  hurt;  so  don't  think  you  are.'     Presently 

(31) 


32  Eddyism. 

the  child  forgets  all  about  the  accident  and  is  at 
play  again"  (48).  Of  course,  in  this  supposed 
hurtless  episode  there  is  little  harm  in  this  treat- 
ment, but  it  would  have  been  the  same,  accord- 
ing to  the  teaching  of  the  whole  system,  if  the 
child  had  broken  its  nose,  torn  out  an  eye,  or 
ripped  off  an  ear.  How  unlike  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  who  "  took  our  infirmities  and  bare  our 
sicknesses,"  who  is  "  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
our  infirmities,"  and  who  wept  at  the  grave  of 
Lazarus ! 

2.  It  encourages  deception.  To  say  you  are 
not  sick  when  you  know  you  are  is  to  lie;  yet 
this  is  just  what  Christian  Science  demands. 
Many  are  the  subterfuges  resorted  to  by  the 
members  of  this  school  to  deceive  the  skeptical. 
A  consumptive  Christian  Scientist,  with  whom 
I  was  acquainted,  was  visiting  a  friend.  After 
she  had  retired  to  her  room  for  the  night  her 
friend  heard  her  making  a  strange  noise  and 
went  in  and  found  her  almost  suffocated  in  at- 
tempting to  smother  her  coughing.  I  visited  a 
friend  who  had  been  in  ill  health  for  years.  The 
disease  was  consumption.  A  relative  answered 
my  knock.  I  told  her  I  wished  to  see  Mrs. 
Blank.  I  noticed  she  hesitated,  and  remarked  : 
"  If  it  is  not  convenient,  I  can  call  again.  Is  she 
sick?"  "Not  to  say  sick,"  she  whined.  Fol- 
lowing  my   request   she   stepped  into   another 


Tendencies.  33 

room  to  ask  the  lady  if  I  could  see  her.  On  her 
return  her  message  was,  "Not  convenient  to- 
day." I  seriously  suspected  that  "  not  to  say 
sick"  was  a  Christian  Science  misrepresenta- 
tion. I  went  to  a  mutual  acquaintance  who 
lived  a  short  distance  away  and  requested  her  to 
go  and  find  out  the  truth.  She  did  so  and  found 
the  poor  woman  verj^  sick.  She  died  not  long 
after  this.     Yet  she  was  "  not  to  say  sick." 

3.  It  ignores  much  of  the  Bible,  and  misin- 
terprets much  more,  and  in  many  instances  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  virtually  dispute  its  plain 
teaching.  This  has  been  already  shown  and 
will  be  developed  more  and  more  in  the  further 
treatment  of  the  subject, 

3 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CONCESSIONS. 

Before  leaving  this  dtpartment  of  the  treatise 
it  is  but  due  to  truth  to  make  the  concession  that 
Christian  Science  does  in  many  instances  heal 
disease.  This  may  be  accounted  for  in  the  fol- 
lowing natural  ways : 

1.  The  ills  of  many  people  are  only  imagi- 
nary, as  Christian  Science  claims.  Their  sick- 
ness is  "  all  in  the  mind."  Now  whatever  or 
whoever  eradicates  this  idea  performs  a  cure. 

2.  This  naturally  leads  to  the  further  assertion 
that  bodily  ailments  may  be  produced  b}'  mind 
and  healed  through  the  same  instrumentality. 
A  person  may  imagine  himself  sick  until  he  im- 
agines himself  sick,  the  body  sympathizing  with 
the  mental  state  until  it  really  becomes  diseased. 
The  preacher  may  fix  his  attention  on  his  throat 
and  dwell  in  such  fear  of  "  throat  trouble  "  that 
irritation  will  be  set  up,  a  cough  ensues,  and  the 
vocal  organs  become  affected.  Dyspepsia  may 
be  produced  by  instituting  a  stomachical  inqui- 
sition after  each  meal.  It  is  no  surprise  then  that 
taking  the  mind  off  of  these  organs  and  occu- 
pying it  with  something  outside  the  body,  leav- 
ing them  free  to  perform  unmolested  their  ap- 

(34) 


Concessions.  35 

pointed  functions,  results  in  relief.  The  effect 
is  all  the  more  potent  if  the  mind  firmly  grasps 
the  idea  that  the  disease  has  vanished,  for  the 
buoyancy  of  joy  and  hope  helps  the  circulation 
and  the  action  of  the  nervous  system.  Every 
physician  recognizes  this,  and  it  is  a  part  of  his 
practice. 

3.  Hypnotism.  I  am  sure  that  much  of  the 
effect  of  Christian  Science  practice  is  due  to  this 
agency.  I  was  told  by  an  honored  minister  of 
the  gospel  who  graduated  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
school,  receiving  her  personal  instruction,  that 
this  is  true.  Its  power  may  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  repeatedly  employed  instead  of 
ether  in  surgical  operations.  There  are  some 
diseases  that  will  yield  to  it.  I  am  aware  that 
Christian  Scientists  deny  the  practice  of  it. 
Some  of  them  doubtless  are  sincere  in  such  de- 
nial, but  the  influence  ofttimes  exists  when  the 
operator  is  ignorant  of  its  employment. 

But  there  are  cases  which  are  beyond  the  lim- 
it of  mind-cure,  either  as  displa3^ed  ordinarily  or 
in  hypnotism.  There  are  diseases,  which  not 
only  are  not  produced  by  mental  action,  but  ex- 
ist in  spite  of  belief  to  the  contrary.  A  tumor 
ma}^  exist  for  years  when  the  subject  is  ignorant 
of  it.  A  baby  without  belief  may  be  sick.  Chris- 
tian Scientists  say  that  it  is  the  effect  of  the  false 
belief  of  the  parents ;  but  this  is  simple  idiocy. 


36  Kddyism. 

Besides,  Christian  Scientists'  babies  get  sick, 
and  suffer,  and  die  in  spite  of  their  parents'  be- 
lief. The  consumptive  is  characteristically  hope- 
ful, and  dies  disbelieving  in  his  malady,  or  that 
he  is  dangerously  ill.  A  man  may  be  resuscitated 
from  the  effects  of  drowning  by  immediate  and 
vigorous  action,  but  mind  cannot  do  it.  And 
there  are  cases  in  surgery  which  the  mind  can- 
not touch. 

A  book  might  be  written  on  the  power  of 
mind  over  matter ;  its  healing  efficiency  in  many 
instances  and  its  utter  futility  in  others.  But  I 
desist  and  leave  this  phase  of  the  subject  to  the 
physiciat),  for  this  i^s  hig  favorite  field, 


CHAPTER  V. 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  AS  A  RELIGIOUS  SYS- 
TEM. 

The  most  injurious  effect  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  in  the  religious  realm.  The  exposure  of 
the  body  and  refusal  of  proper  treatment  and 
medicine  to  the  sick  ofttimes  results  in  physical 
death,  but  malpractice  with  the  soul  effects  its 
eternal  loss.  He  who  deals  with  souls  should 
walk  humbly  before  God  and  get  wisdom  from 
him  w^ho  was  the  model  soul-winner.  But  Mrs. 
Eddy  presumptuously  walks  in  "  where  angels 
fear  to  tread"  and  dismisses  the  profoundest 
question  with  an  oily  phrase. 

As  sin  is  the  tremendous  issue  with  fallen 
mortals,  I  will  first  give  the  teaching  of  Chris- 
tian Science  on  it.  This  teaching  is  based  on 
the  following  syllogism  : 

God  is  all, 
God  is  good  ; 
Therefore  all  is  g"ood. 

Hence  there  is  no  sin,  or  evil  effect,  or  punish- 
ment.     This   is   an   astounding   conclusion.     I 
would  not  make  the  assertion  without  abundant 
quotations,  which  I  now  proceed  to  give : 
(37) 


38  Eddyism. 

"  I.  God  is  All. 

"  2.  God  is  Good.     Good  is  Mind. 

"  3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

"  4.  I^ife,  God,  omnipotent  Good,  deny  death, 
evil,  sin,  disease.  Disease,  sin,  evil, 'death,  deny 
Good,  omnipotent  God,  Life"  (7). 

"All  that  Mind  is  or  hath  made  is  good,  and  He 
made  all ;  hence  there  is  no  evil  "  (206).  "  Since 
God  is  All,  there  is  no  room  for  his  opposite.  He 
alone  created  the  real,  and  it  is  good ;  therefore 
evil,  being  the  opposite  of  goodness,  is  unreal,  and 
cannot  be  the  product  of  God"  (234).  "  Man  is 
incapable  of  sin,  sickness,  and  death,  inasmuch 
as  he  derives  his  essence  from  God,  and  possesses 
not  a  single  original,  or  underived,  power.  Hence 
the  real  man  cannot  depart  from  holiness  "  (471). 
"  We  shall  all  learn  that  sin  and  mortality  are 
without  any  actual  origin  or  rightful  existence, 
when  we  put  off  the  false  sense  for  the  true,  and 
see  that  they  have  neither  principle  nor  perma- 
nency "  (177).  "Sin,  sickness,  and  death  are 
comprised  in  human  material  belief,  and  belong 
not  to  a  divine  Mind.  They  are  without  a  real 
origin  or  existence"  (182).  "  If  Soul  could  sin, - 
or  be  lost,  then  Being  and  Immortality  would  be 
lost,  wdth  all  the  faculties  of  Mind  ;  but  Being 
cannot  be  lost  while  God  exists"  (iii).  "As 
for  spiritual  error,  there  is  none"  (187).  Yet 
Paul  speaks  of   "spiritual  wickedness  in  high 


As  A  RkivIGious  System.  39 

/  places"  (Eph.  6:  12)  and  "  filthiness "  of  the 
spirit  as  well  as  of  the  flesh  (2  Cor.  7:  i).  Man 
is  represented  as  perfect  and  unfallen :  "  The 
great  truth  that  man  was,  is,  and  ever  shall  be 
perfect  is  incontrovertible  "  (96).  "  The  Science 
of  Being  reveals  man  as  perfect,  even  as  the 
Father  is  perfect"  (198).  "The  more  I  under- 
stand true  humanhood,  the  more  I  see  it  to  be 
sinless,  as  ignorant  of  sin  as  is  the  perfect  Mak- 
er" ("Unity  of  Good,"  p.  61).  "If  man  was 
once  perfect,  but  has  now  lost  his  perfection, 
then  mortals  have  never  beheld  in  man  the 
outlines  or  realities  of  divine  Mind"  (155). 
"  Through  discernment  of  the  spiritual  oppo- 
site of  materiality,  even  the  way  through  Christ, 
Truth,  man  will  reopen,  with  the  key  of  Science, 
the  gates  of  Paradise  which  human  beliefs  have 
closed,  and  will  find  himself  unfallen,  pure,  and 
free"  (63,  64).  The  fall  is  denominated  an  allegory 
(176).  The  definition  of  man  is,  "God's  uni- 
versal idea,  individual,  perfect,  eternal."  And 
while  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  Man  is  not  God,  and 
God  is  not  man  "  (476),  yet  she  also  says,  "  The 
Soul,  or  Mind,  of  man  is  God"  (198),  and  as- 
sumes his  sinlessness  therefrom. 

As  to  punishment,  she  says,  "  In  common  jus- 
tice, we  must  admit  that  God  will  not  punish 
man  for  what  he  created  him  capable  of  doing, 


40  Eddyism. 

and  knew  from  the  outset  that  he  would  do  " 
(302).* 

The  question  arises,  What  is  sin  ?  Mrs.  Ed- 
dy is  ready  with  an  answer.  "  Nothing  is  Spirit, 
nothing  is  real  and  eternal,  but  God  and  his  idea. 
Evil  has  no  reality.  It  is  neither  person,  place, 
nor  thing,  but  is  simply  a  belief,  an  illusion  of 
material  sense"  (237).  "They  [sin  and  mortal- 
ity] are  native  nothingness,  out  of  which  error 
would  simulate  creation,  through  a  man  formed 
from  dust  instead  of  Deity  "   (177). 

So  the  world  has  been  laboring:  under  a  delu- 
sion in  considering  that  sin  is  a  reality,  and  Mrs. 
Eddy's  mission  is  to  deliver  us  from  the  fright- 
ful embrace  of  this  horrible  nightmare.  Is  it 
any  wonder,  then,  that  Christian  Science,  by  its 
devotees,  is  given  a  place  in  advance  of  the 
Church,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  more  honored  than  the 
apostles  or  Christ?  The  following  passage  from 
the  leading  essay  in  the  June,  1888,  number  of 
the  Christian  Science  Journal,  illustrates  this  dis- 
position :  "  That  Christian  Science  is  in  advance 
of  the  popular  churches,  no  one  who  has  read 
without  prejudice  the  wonderful  revelations  and 
indisputable  truths  of  '  Science  and  Health '  can 
fail  to  admit.  .  .  .  Creeds  and  ritualistic  modes 
of  worship  retard  spiritual  advance.    The  masses 

*Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  of  the  suffering  incident  to  sin,  but  in  this 
she  is  inconsistent  with  her  theory.' 


As  A  RKI.IGIOUS  System.  4^ 

of  church-goers   acquiesce  in  these   man-made 
forms  and  ceremonies,  and  lean  upon  them  for 
support.     Creeds  are  to  churches  what  crutches 
are  to  lame  men.     A  lame  man  can  never  walk 
without   his   crutch    until    able  to    abandon   it. 
This  is  equally  true  of  church  creeds  and  dog- 
matic assumptions.    .    .    .  Our  beloved  teacher 
and  pastor  followed  faithfully  and  devoutly  the 
requirements  of  the  orthodox  belief  up  to  the 
very  portal  of  heaven.     Then   Christ,   hearing 
her  knock  for  admittance,  opened  for  her  a  vis- 
ion of  spiritual  realities  of  which  mortals  had 
heretofore  been  ignorant.     That  spiritual  vision 
is  depicted  in  celestial  pictures  in  '  Science  and 
Health,'  whose  'leaves  are  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations.'     John,  the  revelator,  saw  this  hour. 
He  saw  the  great  wonder  which  appeared  in 
heaven— a  woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the 
moon  under  her  feet ;  and  upon  her  head  a  crown 
of  twelve  stars.     Who  can  doubt  John's  revela- 
tion is  fulfilled  to-day?     Surely  our  beloved  pas- 
tor is  clothed  with  the  sunlight  of  divine  light 
and  love.     Moreover,  the  twelve  stars  or  lights 
correspond  to  the  twelve  pearly   gates  of   the 
New  Jerusalem— gates  which  open  to  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel ;  not  the  Israel  of  the  flesh,  but 
Israel  after  the  Spirit.     The  churches  of  to  day 
hold  the  same  relation  to  Christian  Science  that 


42  Eddyism. 

the  law  of  Moses  held  to  Jesus.*'  This  is  little 
short  of  blasphemy. 

Mrs.  Eddy  can  sit  on  the  hilltop  of  observa- 
tion, surrounded  by  the  "illusive"  gold  which 
her  fantasies  have  won  her,  and  look  upon  the 
great  river  of  crime  formed  by  the  conjunction 
of  streams  flowing  from  thousands  of  wicked 
hearts  as  described  in  Mark  7:  21,  22,  and  re- 
mark, "All  is  good ;  there  is  no  evil.  Fornica- 
tion, murder,  theft,  lying,  blasphemy,  and  vile 
thoughts  are  only  illusions  of  mortal  mind.  Ver- 
ily, all  is  good." 

The  merest  tyro  in  biblical  knowledge  knows 
that  all  this  contravenes  the  plain  teachings  of 
the  Scriptures  on  this  subject  of  awful  moment 
to  men.  "  Lo,  this  only  have  I  found,  that  God 
hath  made  man  upright ;  but  they  have  sought 
out  many  inventions  "  (Eccl.  7:  29).  "Where- 
fore, as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world, 
and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  for  that  all  have  sinned"  (Rom.  5:  12). 
"  Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin 
did  my  mother  conceive  me  "  (Ps.  51  :  5).  "  For 
there  is  no  man  that  sinneth  not"  (i  Kings  8: 
46).  "God  looked  down  from  heaven  upon  the 
children  of  men,  to  see  if  there  were  any  that 
did  understand,  that  did  seek  God.  Every  one 
of  them  is  gone  back ;  they  are  altogether  be- 
come filthy;  there  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no, 


AvS  A  Reugious  System.  43 

not  one  "  (Ps.  53  :  2,  3)-  "  But  the  scripture  hath 
concluded  all  under  sin"  (Gal.  3:  22).  "If  we 
say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves, 
and  the  truth  is  not  in  us  "  (i  John  i  :  8).  (This 
marks    the    Christian    Scientist   as  the  deluded 

one.) 

"  If  we  say  that  we  have  not  sinned,  we  make 
him  a  liar,  and  his  word  is  not  in  us"  (i  John 
I  :  10).     "  For  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  "  (Rom. 

6:  23). 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HOW  TO  GET  RID  OF  SIN. 

The  tremendous  question  of  the  ages  has  ever 
been,  "How  shall  we  get  rid  of  sin?"  It  has 
engrossed  the  concentrated  energy  of  earth's 
greatest  minds.  Hundreds  of  books  have  been 
written  on  it,  and  many  answers  have  been  given. 
These  great  minds,  pagan  and  Christian,  have 
discussed  it  with  that  deferential  carefulness 
which  should  characterize  all  in  dealing  with 
that  which  touches  human  destiny.  It  was  left 
for  this  "  modern  pope  in  petticoats,"  Mrs.  Ed- 
dy, to  suavely  tell  us  that  sin  is  to  be  got  rid  of 
by  denying  its  existence.  "To  get  rid  of  sin, 
through  Science,  is  to  divest  sin  of  any  supposed 
Mind  or  reality,  and  never  to  admit  that  sin  can 
have  intelligence  or  power,  pain  or  pleasure. 
You  conquer  error  by  denying  its  verity.  Our 
various  theories  w411  never  lose  their  imaginary 
power  for  good  or  evil  until  we  lose  our  belief 
in  them,  and  make  I^ife  its  own  proof  of  harmo- 
ny and  God"  (234,  235).  "If  sin,  sickness,  and 
death  were  understood  as  nothingness,  they 
would  disappear"  (476). 

The  idea  of  pardon  and  cleansing  in  answer 
to  prayer,  as  recognized  by  the  Bible,  is  unknown 
to  Christian  Science.  "  By  interpreting  God  as 
a  corporeal  Savior,  but  not  as  the  saving  Prin- 

(44) 


How  TO  Gkt  Rid  of  Sin.  45 

ciple,  we  shall  continue  to  seek  salvation  through 
pardon,  and  not  through  reform,  and  resort  to 
matter,  instead  of  Spirit,  for  the  cure  of  the 
sick"  (181).  "Prayer  cannot  change  the  Sci- 
ence of  Being.  .  .  .  The  habit  of  pleading  with 
the  divine  Mind,  as  one  pleads  with  a  human  be- 
ing, perpetuates  the  belief  in  God  as  humanly 
circumscribed"  (308).  "The  destruction  of  sin 
is  the  divine  method  of  pardon.  .  .  .  Being  de- 
stroyed, sin  needs  no  other  form  of  forgiveness  " 
(234).  And,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  way 
to  destroy  sin  is  to  deny  its  existence. 

This  idea  of  sin  and  salvation  from  it  logical- 
ly leaves  no  place  for  Christ's  atonement  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  system.  It  is  true  she  says  much 
about  it,  but  only  recognizes  its  effect  on  the 
human  mind,  and  even  in  this  she  is  inconsistent 
with  her  theory.  She  states  Christ's  mission  as 
follows :  "  He  came  to  rescue  men  from  these 
very  illusions  to  which  he  seemed  to  conform  : 
from  the  illusion  which  calls  sin  real,  and  man 
a  sinner,  needing  a  Savior ;  the  illusion  which 
calls  sickness  real,  and  man  an  invalid,  needing  a 
physician;  the  illusion  that  death  is  as  real  as  Life. 
From  such  thoughts  —  mortal  inventions,  one 
and  all — Jesus  came  to  save  men,  through  ever- 
present  and  eternal  Good  "  ("Unity  of  Good," 
pp.  74,  75).  A  close  inspection  of  the  foregoing 
language  will  reveal  a  great  many  "illusions," 


4^  Bddyism. 

Stated  boldly,  the  part  relative  to  sin  would 
read :  He  came  to  save  men  from  the  illusion 
that  they  need  him.  Therefore,  instead  of  com- 
ing with  the  announcement,  "  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life.  .  .  .  He  that  believeth 
on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life  :  and  he  that 
believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life ;  but  the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him"  (John  3:  i6,  36) 
—Mrs.  Eddy  would  have  him  say,  "  I  come,  as 
your  Savior,  to  tell  you  that  you  do  not  need 
a  Savior.     That  is  an  illusion." 

In  fact,  Christian  Science  teaches  that  Christ's 
death  was  only  seeming.  This  must  be  so  to 
harmonize  with  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that 
death  is  an  illusion.  "  In  Science,  Christ  never 
died.  In  Sense,  Jesus  died,  and  lives  again. 
The  fleshly  Jesus  seemed  to  die,  though  he  did 
not"  ("Unity  of  Good,"  p.  78).  Mrs.  Eddy 
quotes  Paul  as  follows  :  "  For  if,  when  we  were 
enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  [seem- 
ing] death  of  his  Son,"  etc.  (351).  It  see7ns  that 
would  be  a  rather  seeming  reconciliation.  How 
can  anyone  read  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
and  the  accounts  of  Christ's  death  given  by  the 
evangelists,  and  say  there  was  anything  illusory 
about  it? 

Does  not  the  following  convict  Mrs.  Eddy  as 
a  false  prophet?     "Beloved,  believe  not  every 


How  TO  Get  Rid  of  Sin.  47 

spirit,  but  try  the  spirits  whether  they  are  of 
God :  because  many  false  prophets  are  gone  out 
into  the  world.  Hereby  know  ye  the  Spirit  of 
God:  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God  :  and  every 
spirit  that  confesseth  not  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
come  in  the  flesh  is  not  of  God :  and  this  is  that 
spirit  of  Antichrist,  whereof  ye  have  heard  that 
it  should  come ;  and  even  uovn^  already  is  in  the 
world"  (i  John  4:  1-3). 

The  Bible  method  of  getting  rid  of  sin,  in  op- 
position to  that  of  Christian  Science,  is  by  for- 
giveness, embracing  cleansing  by  the  blood  of 
Jesus.  "Forgive  us  our  sins"  (Luke  11:  4). 
"  Repent  therefore  of  this  thy  wickedness;  and 
pray  God,  if  perhaps  the  thought  of  thine  heart 
may  be  forgiven  thee"  (Acts  8:  22).  "That 
they  may  receive  forgiveness  of  sin  "  (Acts  26 : 
18).  "  If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and 
just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness  "  (i  John  i  :  9).  "  That 
he  by  the  grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for 
every  man  "  (Heb.  2  :  9).  "  Much  more  then,  be- 
ing now  justified  by  his  blood,  we  shall  be  saved 
from  wrath  through  him"  (Rom.  5:  9).  "The 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from 
all  sin"  (i  John  i:  7).  "Unto  him  that  loved 
us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own 
blood"  (Rev.  1:5). 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   TEACHINGS  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 
ON  OTHER  SUBJECTS. 

Not  only  is  Christian  Science  astray  on  sin  and 
salvation,  but  many  other  fundamental  doctrines. 
The  Trinity.— Thoi  Trinity  is  denied,  ''The 
theory  of  three  persons  in  one  God  (that  is,  ^ 
personal  Trinity,  or  Tri-unity)  suggests  heathen 
gods,  rather  than  the  one  ever-present  I  Am, 
'Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  I,ord '  " 
(152).  ''Ivife,  Truth,  and  I,ove  constitute  th@ 
triune  God,  or  triply  divine  Principle"  (227), 
MrB.  Eddy  denies  the  Trinity,  not  as  a  Unita* 
rian,  but  as  a  Pantheist ;  for  we  have  already 
seen  that  she  teaches  that  God  is  all,  and  there 
is  nothing  that  is  not  God. 

By  referring  to  the  Bible  we  find  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity  clearly  revealed.  The  attributes 
of  personality  are  ascribed  to  each,  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit ;  and  every  convert  is  to  be  bap- 
tized "in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  Holy  Spirit.— Th^  Holy  Spirit  is  defined 
as  "  Divine  Science  ;  the  developments  of  eternal 
Life,  Truth,  and  Love  "  (579).  His  baptism  is 
made  to  represent  the  incoming  of  a  clearer  un 

(48) 


Te:achings  on  Other  Subjects.        49 

derstanding.  "The  magnitude  of  Jesus'  work, 
his  material  disappearance  before  their  eyes,  his 
reappearance  in  idea,  all  enabled  the  disciples 
to  understand  what  Jesus  had  said.  Heretofore 
they  had  only  believed;  now  they  understood. 
This  understanding  is  what  is  meant  by  the  de- 
scent of  the  Holy  Ghost— that  influx  of  Divine 
Science  which  so  illuminated  the  Pentecostal 
Day,  and  is  now  repeating  its  ancient  history" 

(348). 

Insert  Mrs.  Eddy's  definition  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  tender,  consoling  words  of  Jesus 
to  his  sad  apostles,  also  adapting  the  pronoun, 
and  note  the  hollow  palaver:  "Nevertheless  I 
tell  you  the  truth  ;  it  is  expedient  for  you  that  I 
go  away :  for  if  I  go  not  away,  Divine  Science 
will  not  come  unto  you ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will 
send  it  unto  you.  .  .  .  Howbeit  when  it,  the  Di- 
vine Science  of  truth,  is  come,  it  will  guide  you 
into  all  truth  :  for  it  shall  not  speak  of  itself; 
but  whatsoever  it  shall  hear,  that  shall  it  speak : 
and  it  will  show  you  things  to  come  "  (John 
16:  7,  13). 

As  to  Christ. — Christ  is  spoken  of  as  an  idea, 
and  in  harmony  with  this  is  referred  to  as  Truth, 
and  stripped  of  his  personality.  "As  a  theoret- 
ical life-basis  is  found  to  be  a  misapprehension 
of  existence,  the  spiritual  and  divine  Principle 
of  man  dawns  upon  human  thought,  and  leads 

4 


50  Kddyism. 

it  to  '  where  the  j^oung  child  lies  ' — even  to  the 
spiritual  idea  of  Life,  and  what  Life  includes  " 
(84).  "Paul  writes,  '  If  Christ  [Truth]  be  not 
risen,  then  is  my  preaching  vain ; '  that  is,  If 
this  idea  of  the  supremacy  of  Spirit,  which  is 
the  true  conception  of  Being,  come  not  to  your 
thought,  you  cannot  be  benefited  by  what  I  say  " 
(220).  (Can  anyone  really  believe  that  Paul 
meant  such  hollow  nonsense?)  "  If  we  wish  to 
follow  Christ,  Truth,  it  must  be  in  the  way  of 
his  appointing"  (221).  "  Led  by  a  solitary  star 
amid  the  darkness,  the  Magi  of  old  foretold  the 
Messiahship  of  Truth"  (261).  It  is  true  she 
speaks  of  Christ  as  a  person,  and  her  definition 
of  Christ  is,  "  The  divine  manifestation  of  God, 
which  comes  to  the  flesh,  to  destroy  incarnate 
error"  (574).  Yet  she  says  almost  as  much  of 
man. 

Origifi  of  Ma?i.—The  Bible  says,  "  The  Lord 
formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life  ;  and 
man  became  a  living  soul"  (Gen.  2:  7).  But 
Mrs.  Eddy  calls  "the  belief  that  the  human 
race  originated  materially  instead  of  spiritually 
— that  man  started  first  from  the  dust,  secondly 
from  a  rib,  and  thirdly  from  an  egg,"  an  error. 
Part  of  this  is  doubtless  true,  but  there  is  enough 
left  of  error  to  contradict  the  Genesis  account. 
The  fact  is,  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches  the  eternity  of 


Tkachings  on  Other  Subjects.        51 

man,  and  therefore  that  he  is  without  origin. 
**  Let  us  remember  that  the  harmonious  and  im- 
mortal man  has  existed  forever"  (198).  "Both 
man  and  woman  proceed  from  God  and  are  his 
eternal  children"  (521). 

A?i^els. — The  Christian  Science  definition  of 
angels  is,  "  God's  thoughts  passing  to  man,  spir- 
itual intuitions,  pure  and  perfect ;  the  inspira- 
tion of  goodness,  purity,  and  immortality,  giv- 
ing the  lie  to  evil,  sensuality,  and  mortality " 
(572).  "They  are  pure  thoughts  from  God" 
(194).  "My  angels  are  exalted  thoughts.  .  .  . 
Angels  are  God's  impartations  to  man — not  ?nes- 
sefigers,  or  persons,  but  ^nessages  of  the  true  idea 
of  divinity,  flowing  into  humanity  "  (195).  Now 
let  us  turn  to  the  Bible  and  Eddyize  a  little.  2 
Kings  19 :  35 — "And  it  came  to  pass  that  night, 
that  the  pure  thought  of  the  Lord  went  out  and 
smote  in  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  an  hundred 
four  score  and  five  thousand."  Dan.  6:  21,  22 — 
"  Then  said  Daniel  unto  the  king,  O  king,  live 
forever.  My  God  hath  sent  his  pure  thought, 
and  hath  shut  the  lions'  mouths,  that  they  have 
not  hurt  me."  Rev.  20  :  1-3 — "And  I  saw  a  pure 
thought  come  down  from  heaven,  having  the 
key  of  the  bottomless  pit  and  a  great  chain  in  its 
hand.     And  it  laid  hold  on  the  dragon,"  etc. 

This  is  sufficient  to  render  the  Christian  Sci- 
ence idea  of  angels  ridiculous. 


52  Eddyism. 

Resurrection. — Christian  Science  teaches  that 
there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  does 
away  with  all  resurrection  in  any  Bible  sense. 
"  The  belief  that  material  bodies  return  to  dust, 
hereafter  to  rise  up  as  spiritual  bodies,  with  ma- 
terial sensations  and  desires,  is  incorrect"  (239). 
No  Bible  student  would  contend  for  the  latter 
part  of  this,  but  Mrs.  Eddy's  whole  theory 
disputes  the  blessed  fact  stated  in  the  first 
part.  ' 

She  pumps  the  obvious  meaning  out  of  the 
Bible  texts  relative  to  this  doctrine,  and  then 
pumps  her  own  hazy  idiocy  in,  that  she  may 
pump  it  out  again  to  harmonize  with  her  general 
system.  The  example  already  given  of  her 
emasculation  of  Paul's  noble  words,  "  If  Christ  be 
not  risen,"  etc.,  is  illustrative.  In  harmony  with 
this  mental  etherialization  is  her  definition  of  the 
resurrection:  "  Spiritualization  of  thought,  a 
new  and  higher  idea  of  Immortality,  or  spiritual 
existence ;  material  belief  yielding  to  spiritual 
understanding"  (584).  All  this  in  the  face  of 
plain  scripture  declaring  a  literal  resurrection  of 
the  dead  as  Christ  was  raised  :  "  Knowing  that 
he  which  raised  up  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  raise 
up  us  also  by  Jesus,  and  shall  present  us  with 
you  "  (2  Cor.  4 :  14).  "  The  dead  in  Christ  shall 
rise  first "  (i  Thess.  4  :  16).  "And  I  saw  the  dead, 
small  and  great,  stand  before  God.  .  .  .  And  the 


Tkachings  on  Othkr  Subjects.        53 

sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it ;  and  death 
and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
them :  and  they  were  judged  every  man  accord- 
ing to  their  works  "  (Rev.  20 :  12,  13). 

Jiidgment. — Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "  No  final  judg- 
ment awaits  mortals  "  (187).  The  last  quotation 
under  the  preceding  subject  disputes  this,  be- 
sides many  other  texts.  "  Because  he  hath  ap- 
pointed a  day  in  the  which  he  will  judge  the  world 
in  righteousness  "  (Acts  17:31).  "  For  we  must 
all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  " 
(2  Cor.  5  :  10).  "After  this  the  judgment  "  (Heb. 
9  :  27).  Lack  of  space  forbids  other  quotations, 
and  particularly  that  sublime  description  of  the 
final  judgment  scene  in  Matt.  25  :  31-46. 

HelL — Mrs.  Eddy  has  no  place  in  her  inverte- 
brate system  for  the  scripture  doctrine  of  hell. 
She  speaks  of  it,  but  only  to  filch  from  it  its 
awful  meaning.  Her  definition  is  as  follows : 
"Mortal  belief;  error;  lust;  remorse;  hatred; 
sin  ;  sickness  ;  death  ;  suffering  and  self-destruc- 
tion ;  self-imposed  agony ;  effects  of  sin ;  that 
which  maketh  and  worketh  a  lie  "  (579).  When 
w^e  remember  that  all  these  are  illusions,  hell  is 
seen  to  be  a  very  attenuated  doctrine  in  Chris- 
tian Science.  In  fact,  she  teaches  an  after-death 
probation  theory  which  excludes  the  Bible  idea 
of  hell.  "As  man  falleth  asleep,  so  shall  he 
awake.     As  death  findeth  mortal  man,  so  shall 


54  Bddyism. 

he  be  after  death,  until  probation  and  growth 
shall  effect  the  needful  change  "  (187).  "  Those 
who  reach  the  transition  called  death,  without 
having  rightly  improved  the  lessons  of  this  pri- 
mary school  of  mortal  existence,  and  still  believe 
in  matter's  realit3^  pleasure,  and  pain,  are  not 
ready  to  understand  Immortality.  Hence  they 
awake  only  to  another  sphere  of  experience,  and 
must  pass  through  another  probationary  state 
before  it  can  be  truly  said  of  them,  *  Blessed  are 
the  dead  that  die  in  the  lyord '  "  ('' Unity  of 
Good,"  p.  3). 

In  opposition  to  this,  the  Bible  says  :  "  The 
wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell,  and  all  the 
nations  that  forget  God  "  (Ps.  9  :  17).  Jesus  said : 
"And  if  thy  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off:  it  is  better 
for  thee  to  enter  into  life  maimed  than  having 
two  hands  to  go  into  hell,  into  the  fire  that  shall 
never  be  quenched  :  where  their  worm  dieth  not, 
and  their  fire  is  not  quenched  "  (Mark  9 :  43,  44). 
"And  these  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  pun- 
ishment "  (Matt.  25:  46). 

Heaven. — Christian  Science  teaches  erroneous- 
ly about  heaven,  viz.:  That  it  is  not  a  place,  but 
simply  a  harmonious  state  of  mind.  "  Heaven 
is  not  a  locality,  but  a  state  in  which  Mind,  and 
all  the  manifestations  of  Mind,  are  harmonious 
and  immortal  "  (187).  The  definition  given  of 
heaven   is,    "  Harmony ;    the   reign   of    Spirit ; 


TEACHINGS  ON  Other  Subjects.        55 

government  by  Principle  ;  spirituality  ;  bliss  ;  the 
atmosphere  of  Soul  "  (578). 

Jesus  says  :  "  In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions  :  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told 
you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  And  if  I 
go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come 
again,  and  receive  you  unto  myself,  that  where 
I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also  "  (John  14:  2,  3). 

Devil. — Christian  Science  teaches  the  most 
erroneous  views  concerning  the  devil  and 
demons.  The  devil  is  error  and  demons  are 
evil  beliefs.  The  definition  of  devil  is,  "  Evil ; 
a  lie  ;  error;  neither  corporeality  nor  mind;  the 
opposite  of  truth ;  a  belief  in  sin,  sickness,  and 
death;  animal  magnetism,"  etc.  (575).*  "This 
pantheistic  error,  first  called  the  serpeiit,  insists 
still  on  the  opposite  of  Truth"  (202,  203).  ''There 
are  evil  beliefs,  often  called  evil  Spirits ;  but 
these  evils  are  not  Spirit,  or  they  could  not  be 
evil.  There  is  no  evil  in  Spirit "  (102).  Hence 
wherever  the  Bible  speaks  of  Christ's  casting 
out  devils,  Mrs.  Eddy  reads  it  "  evils,"  or 
"  error."  Example  :  "  Christ  healed  the  sick 
and  cast  out  error"  (63).  "Healing  the  sick, 
casting  out  error  "  (106).  "Jesus  cast  out  evil 
and  healed  the  sick  "  (79). 


*Itis  remarkable  that  the  definition  of  Adam,  made  in  the 
likeness  of  God,  is  substantially  the  same :  "  Error ;  a  falsity  ;  the 
belief  in  '  original  sin,'  sickness,  and  death;  evil,"  etc.  (570). 


56  Eddyism. 

As  evil,  according  to  Christian  Science,  is  an 
illusion,  Mrs.  Eddy  is  consistent  with  hersel^ 
when  she  concludes  that  Satan  is  an  illusion  : 
''  The  beliefs  of  the  human  mind  rob  and  enslave 
it.  and  then  impute  this  result  to  another  illusive 
personification,  named  Satan"  (8i). 

It  is  almost  superfluous  to  say  that  the  Bible 
teaches  that  Satan  and  demons  are  spiritual  in- 
telligences, clothing  them  with  the  attributes  of 
personality.  See  Job  i  :  6-12;  Matt.  4:  i-ii;  i 
Pet.  5 :  8,  9.  Relativ^e  to  demons  the  following 
references  are  pertinent:  Mark  5  :  1-13;  Matt. 
15:  22-28;  Luke  11:  14-20. 

Death  171  the  Next  World. — Notwithstanding 
Christian  Science  teaches  that  death  is  a  delu- 
sion, yet,  strange  to  say,  it  is  given  a  place  in  the 
next  world :  "  Death  will  occur  on  the  next 
plane  of  existence  as  on  this,  until  the  under- 
standing of  Life  is  reached  "  (243). 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

FALSE  HERMENEUTICS. 

I  think  enough  has  been   said  to  prove  that 
Christian  Science  would  undermine  the  founda- 
tions   of    Christian   faith,   and   emasculate    the 
Bible,  and  make  it  appear  a  series  of  thinly  con- 
nected vagaries.     But,  to  render  this  assertion 
still  more  apparent  and  impressive,  I  append  the 
following   examples    of    false    hermeneutics : 
"  Jacob  was  alone,  wrestling  with  error— strug- 
gling with  a  mortal  sense  of  life,  substance,  and 
intelligence  as  existent  in  matter,  with  its  false 
pleasures  and  pains— when  an  angel,  a  message 
from   Truth   and   Love,   appeared  to   him,  and 
smote  the  sinew,  or  strength,  of  his  error,  till 
he   became    powerless;    and   God,   being   thus 
understood,  gave  him  spiritual  strength  in  this 
Peniel  of  Divine  Science.     Then  said  the  spirit- 
ual evangel :  '  Let  me  go,  for  the  day  breaketh  ; ' 
that  is,  The  light  of  Truth  and  Love  dawns  upon 
thee  ;  but  the  Patriarch,  perceiving  his  own  error 
and  need  of  help,  did  not  loose  his  hold  upon 
this  glorious  light  until  his  nature  was  trans- 
formed.    When  Jacob  was  asked,  '  What  is  thy 
name?'  he  straightway  answered;  and  then  his 
name  was  changed  to  Israel,  for  *  as  a  prince ' 
(57) 


58  Eddyism. 

had  he  prevailed,  and  had  *  power  with  God  and 
with  men.'  Then  Jacob  questioned  his  deliver- 
er, 'What  is  thy  name?'  but  this  appellation 
was  nameless  and  withheld,  for  the  messenger 
was  not  a  corporeal  being,  but  an  incorporeal 
impartation  of  God  to  man,  which,  to  use  the 
word  of  the  Psalmist,  restored  his  soul — gave 
him  the  true  Sense  of  Being  and  rebuked  his 
material  sense  "  (204,  205). 

Here  are  some  expositions  of  passages  in  Gen- 
esis : 

1:6."  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst 
of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from 
the  waters." 

"  Understanding  is  the  spiritual  firmament, 
whereby  human  conception  distinguishes  be- 
tween Truth  and  error"  (499). 

I  :  8.  "And  God  called  the  firmament  heaven- 
And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  sec- 
ond day." 

"  Spirit  unites  understanding  to  eternal  har- 
mony through  Divine  Science.  The  calm  and 
exalted  thought  takes  upon  itself  understanding, 
and  is  at  peace  ;  while  the  dawn  of  ideas  goes 
on,  forming  the  second  stage  of  progress  "  (500). 

I  :  9.  **And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under 
the  heaven  be  gathered  together  unto  one  place, 
and  let  the  dry  land  appear." 

"  Spirit  gathers  unformed  thoughts  into  tTieir 


Fai,se  Hkrmeneutics.  59 

proper  channels.  God  unfolds  these  thoughts, 
even  as  he  opens  the  petals  of  a  rose,  to  send 
their  fragrance  abroad  "  (500). 

2:  21,  22.  "And  the  I^ord  God  caused  a  deep 
sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,  and  he  slept:  and  he 
took  one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up  the  flesh 
instead  thereof.  And  the  rib,  which  the  Lord 
God  had  taken  from  man,  made  he  a  woman,  and 
brought  her  unto  the  man." 

"  Here  falsity,  error,  charges  Truth,  God,  with 
inducing  a  hypnotic  state  in  Adam,  in  order  to 
perform  a  surgical  operation  on  him,  and  thereby 
to  create  woman.  Beginning  creation  with  dark- 
ness instead  of  light — materially  rather  than 
spiritually.  Error  now  simulates  the  work  of 
Truth,  mocking  Love  and  declaring  what  great 
things  error  hath  done.  Beholding  the  creations 
of  his  own  dream,  and  calling  them  real  and 
God-given,  Adam,  alias  error,  gives  them  names. 
Afterwards  he  becomes  the  basis  of  the  creation 
of  woman,  and  of  his  own  kind,  calling  them 
ma7iki7id'^  (521). 

The  red  dragon  (Rev.  12:  3)  is  defined  as 
'*Fear;  inflammation;  sensuality;  subtlety;  er- 
ror; animal  magnetism  "  (584). 

"  When  a  new  spiritual  idea  is  borne  to  earth, 
the  prophetic  scripture  of  Isaiah  is  renewedly 
fulfilled  :  '  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  .  .  .  and 
his  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful  "  (3). 


6o  Bddyism. 

"  In  Egypt  it  was  Mind  which  saved  the  Israel- 
ites from  the  belief  in  plagues  "  (26). 

Therefore  we  conclude,  whatever  Christian 
Science  may  or  ma}-  not  be,  it  is  not  Christian. 
Let  it  be  honest.  Let  it  no  more  parade  before 
the  world  with  the  Bible  in  one  hand  and 
"  Science  and  Health  "  in  the  other,  and  under 
the  cross  the  actuality  of  which  it  disputes.  Let 
it  trample  the  Bible  under  foot  and  tear  the 
sacred  name,  "  Christian,"  from  its  banner.  Let 
it  call  itself  Idealistic  Pantheism,  or  Mental 
Therapeutics,  or  Occultism,  or  Eddyism,  but  let 
it  be  honest  and  drop  the  name  Christian. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

A  PERTINENT  QUESTION 

What  would  be  the  effects  of  the  universal  ac- 
ceptance of  the  doctrines  of  "  Eddyism,"  as  they 
relate  to  matter  and  spirit  ?  This  is  a  pertinent 
question.     Let  us  "  look  before  we  leap." 

First,  as  to  matter.  All  knowledge  concern- 
ing it  would  be  accounted  obsolete  and  worth- 
less, and  worse  still :  error.  Chemistry,  anatomy, 
geology,  astronomy,  and  kindred  sciences  would 
be  no  more  taught  in  our  schools,  for  they  have 
to  do  with  that  which  has  no  existence.  Special 
condemnation  would  fall  on  medical  colleges, 
and  the  vast  reservoir  of  therapeutic  and  sanitary 
knowledge,  the  accumulation  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  ages,  would  be  considered  the  Valley  of  Hin- 
nom  (the  type  of  hell)  outside  the  Jerusalem  of 
Eddyistic  harmony.  In  fact,  all  schools  would  be 
turned  into  Eddy  churches,  where  Eddy  preach- 
ers, with  vague  stare  and  idiotic  complacency, 
and  hollow,  oily  bombast,  would  assure  their 
hearers,  over  and  over,  ad  infiyiitum,  ad  nauseam, 
"All  are  well ;  there  is  no  disease.  All  is  good  ; 
there  is  no  sin." 

Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "Knowledge  gained  from 
matter,  or  through  the  material  senses,  is  only 
(6i) 


62  Kddyism. 

an  illusion  of  mortal  mind — the  offspring  of  bod- 
ily sense,  not  of  Soul,  Spirit — and  symbolizes  all 
that  is  evil  and  perishable.  Natural  Scie?ice,  as 
it  is  commonly  called,  is  not  really  natural  or 
scientific,  because  it  is  deduced  from  the  evi- 
dence of  the  physical  senses"  (170). 

Second,  the  effect  in  the  spiritual  realm  would 
be  even  worse.  Let  the  world  accept  the  doc- 
trine that  there  are  no  sin  and  sinners,  and  that 
mind  does  not  err,  and  the  barriers  of  morality 
are  gone  and  the  evil  of  the  human  heart  is  given 
unbridled  license.  For  if  there  can  be  no  eyil 
there  is  no  moral  law,  the  standard  by  which  to 
pattern  human  life.  And  without  moral  law 
ethical  distinctions  are  obliterated  and  moral 
chaos  is  the  inevitable  doom. 

The  reader  may  this  moment  be  thinking  of 
some  devout  Eddyite  and  placing  him  as  a  refu- 
tation of  the  foregoing.  1  grant  readily  there 
are  such.  But  they  may  be  accounted  for  as 
follows : 

1.  They  may  not  accept  understandingly  the 
whole  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  system. 

2.  The  effect  of  Christian  training  still  holds 
sway. 

3.  The  false  doctrines  have  not  yet  wrought 
out  their  logical  tendency.  On  account  of  for- 
mer religious  teaching  they  may  never  do  so  in 
these  particular  persons.     But  wait  a  generation 


A  PijRTiNi^NT  Question.  {6^ 

or  two,  until  the  old  landmarks  are  wiped  out, 
and  the  influence  of  our  fathers'   faith  is  dead, 
and  see  the  logic  of  the  case  consummated  in 
their  descendants.     There  can  be  but  one  final 
result  of  the  universal  denial  of  the  existence  of 
sin,  and  that  is  its  complete  sway  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  good.     Would  it  be  safe   to   teach   our 
children  that  they  cannot  commit  evil?     Would 
it  be  safe  for  society  ?     Would  it  be  safe  for  the 
state  ?     Would  it  be  safe  for  the  world  ?    Would 
it  be  safe  for  time?     Would  it  be  safe  for  eter- 
nity ?     All  human  experience,  observation,  and 
reason,  and  the  Bible,  answer  in  unison.  No/ 

We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  stated  in  the 
title,  that  Christian  Science  is  neii/ier  Christiari 
nor  scientific,  and  further,  it  is  anti-Christian  and 
anti-scientific. 

My  friend,  beware  of  the  teaching  of  Eddyism. 
Be  not  deceived  by  the  relation  of  their  wonder- 
ful cures,  or  their  assumption  of  superior  knowl- 
edge or  piety.  Wonder  working  is  not  the  test 
of  divineness.  Paul  speaks  of  one  "  whose  com- 
ing is  after  the  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power 
and  signs  and  lying  wonders."  Jesus  said,  "  Take 
heed  that  no  man  deceive  you.  For  many  shall 
come  in  my  name,  saying,  I  am  Christ ;  and  shall 
deceive  many.  .  .  .  And  many  false  prophets 
shall  rise,  and  shall  deceive  many.  And  because 
iniquity   shall  abound,  the  love  of  many  shall 


64  Kddyism. 

wax  cold.  .  .  .  For  there  shall  arise  false 
Christs,  and  false  prophets,  and  shall  show  great 
signs  and  wonders ;  insomuch  that,  if  it  were 
possible,  they  shall  deceive  the  very  elect " 
(Matt.  24:  4,  5,  II,  12,  24). 

Cling  to  the  Old  Book,  "  The  impregnable  rock 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,''  with  its  old  meaning 
infused  into  it  and  made  plain  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Stand  by  the  old  doctrines  that  caused 
our  fathers  to  flee  sin  and  hell  as  awful  realities 
and  escape  them  through  faith  in  Christ  and 
cleansing  by  his  blood.  And  let  the  old,  old 
story  of  the  cross,  the  "  hope  of  earth  and  joy 
of  heaven,"  be  ever  fresh  upon  your  lips. 


Date  Due 

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Hr  2 1  'i^ 

1 

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BP955.W18      tM^'%"- 
E^ism,  or,  Christian  science  neither 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


